This is a site where I post reviews of CDs, DVDs, LPs, and concerts. I have been writing music reviews on and off since 1984. I ran a heavy metal fanzine from 1984-1988 called Metal Madness and have been a staff writer for Aural Innovations for many years. I have also contributed to Chrohinga Well (RIP), Bad Acid (RIP), Lowcut (RIP), Roadburn and a number of other zines as well. I recently moved to Portugal so please request the new address and do not send any music to Denmark anymore. Tak..

Saturday, October 31, 2015

Sue and I tried 4 different beers at a
great place called the Craft Beer Company.. It was pretty packed with beer
enthusiasts. We had wheat beer, a cherry sour, excellent pale ale (Pressure
Drop) and Chinook London IPA. Yum.. Then some tapas at Jamon Jamon, which was a
bit expensive but very nice food…

Tim Rundell and George Butler

Admiral Sir Cloudsly Shovell were to
open the gig but a younger guy (not many of them this night) we were talking
with said they cancelled as the venue could not or would not even provide them
with enough money to cover the cost to get there and back. Pity.. Tim Rundell,
he played with Mick Farren in the past and whom we saw here a couple of years
ago, did a 30min set of blues with slide guitar originals and some covers,
including a Larry Wallis track. They all sounded a bit too much the same except
the one where he removed the slide and said it was a song he had written for
his daughter 30 years ago. He was a nice guy, I talked with him a bit. He was joined
for most of the set by George Butler, who would later play with the PF also.

The Pink Fairies hit the stage even
before time and sadly only had Sandy from the original line up. Russell is
suffering from emphysema (like Mick Farren, who collapsed and died on that very
stage also had). Sandy did come out during the 3rd or 4th
song and play a bit of djembe and try to sing some vocals. He was not looking
well and struggling to breath. Sandy was also not looking well and around this time also had stumbled backwards
and was leaning against the back wall of the stage.They had Jackie on djembe, keyboards and
vocals (seen her with Space Ritual, Paradise 9) as well as Andy, played with
Mick Farren for years on lead guitar and lead vocals.It was a strange set as they played no early
material at all (except War Girl). Some quite funny banter between songs and
some funny subjects in the song lyrics, some of which Mick Farren wrote. They
played a few brand new songs and said they would have a new studio album out
early next year. Waiting for the Man and the Larry Wallis track, Police Car
were recognized by the audience and enjoyed. The set was short and Sandy had
got a chair to sit on and some water but was not doing well and collapsed on
the stage during the 3rd to last song, Skeleton Army and the show
abruptly ended. He had not been playing that well with some noticeable grimaces
from George the drummer at times. Anyway… the band took a 10min break as think
they had only played like 60mins. They came out and played one last song, the
Snake. The set list said they were to play Uncle Harry’s Last Freakout but that
was probably going to be a long jammed out thing and Sandy probably could not
manage that…

I
have to say it was not the best concert and a bit sad. I really hope that it is
nothing serious with Sandy and just some dehydration. It was not that hot in
the club at all but there is very poor ventilation.IT was also a completely different set list
than what I had expected. I have not had very good luck coming to see shows at
this club lately, as last year was saw Space Ritual and Mick Slattery was
terrible and more or less ruined the show. He had also been ill. An ambulance was arriving at the place as we
left so that was not a good sign.

Set
List: Golden Bud, Waiting for the Ice Cream to Melt, Runnin’ out of Road, War
Girl, The Hills are Burnin’, Stopped at the Border, Waiting for the Man, Police
Car, Naked Radio, Skeleton Army, The Snake

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

This was the
5th time ZPZ has played Copenhagen and the 4th time I
have seen them. It has always been an amazing concert experience, about as
close to seeing the real Frank Zappa band itself. These young players are so
great and Dweezil has developed into a stunning guitar player.

Magnus and
his friend Jesper came over to my place and we had one quick beer before
heading over to the venue. We had one
more outside but it was getting close to 20 so we headed in. I did not have an
advance ticket but a guy sold me one for 300. IT would have been 350 at the
door…

Just as we
could get into the concert hall (it was very packed and nearly sold out), they
started the Star Wars intro and then into Inca Roads! The keyboard player
played all the xylophone parts from Ruth Underwood on his Kronos keyboard.Sheila, the female vocalist, sax, flute and
keyboard player also had a Korg Kronos. Dweezil was very warmed up and played
an amazing solo during Po Jama People and the crowd was having fun on this one
as well. I always loved Florentine Pogen and some of the solos Frank would do
on this one as well. Dwezzil did not disappoint! People enjoyed San Ber’dino a
lot and Dweezil had a bit of audience participation with Sofa No2.. That was
the complete One Size fits all record in the first hour.

Next, the first two songs of the 2nd set, were
some of the best playing of the entire concert with Black Napkins and the Grand
Wazoo. Wow… I was pretty blown away. Then they played some more fun tracks like
Baby Snakes, I’m so Cure before Cosmik Debris, which lead into the band
becoming just a three piece and really having some great jams. I loved this
part of the show. Magnus agreed it was really cool. The ended the show with The
Evil Prince from Thing Fish, which was a real rare track..

The first encore was an amazing track that I had never heard
before called Imaginary Diseases. Dweezil said this was a song that his dad
only played on one tour in the 70s and never recorded in the studio. It was
released on a CD a few years back of the same title. Awesome song. Dancin’ Fool
was fun. Dweezil let it rip on the guitar on both Zomby Woof and Muffin Man,
which closed the show.Amazing 2 hr and
30min show..

Friday, October 23, 2015

I had not seen a concert at KB18 in some years. I just don’t
really like the place or the vibe and the sound had always been pretty bad. I
arrived at the same time as my friend Tom and we soon met up with Morten (the
mountain!), Jens and his girlfriend and some of the folks from Måneskjold as
well… Toner Low folks, who have been my friends for years, were hanging out on
the steps smoking.. We all chatted for
a while and then Nether was soon to start so I went in and paid my 60kr and got
a beer (29kr for a can of Tuborg). The place is massive amounts of graffiti and
looks terrible but they have greatly improved the sound system and it is loud
as well..

The singer
in Nether is a Portuguese guy named
Tiago, who was singing in another band that I saw and reviewed last week called
Dreich. He has such in insane and intense voice. So powerful.. Nether were more
or less a DOOM band but they had a lot of diverse tracks, which was great. IT
was not all just the same and the bass player was great and did not play only
on the E string. Hardly any guitar solos but lots of interesting riffs.. A cool
band to follow. They have only recorded a 4 track demo but have enough for a
record now, it seems. They just have to get down to record it.. I guess they
played about 30mins.

Next up was a Swedish band from a few hours north of
Stockholm called Phant. I don’t
think they had ever played in CPH before, as no one I asked had ever heard of
them. They did not have any music for sale but they have a couple of digital EPs and live recordings (including a Toner Low cover!). They were a four piece where all
the sound effects guy, guitarist (did most of the angry screaming), and bass
player all did some vocals.. All in a quite shouted style.. The music was very
intense, riffing doomy stuff with the guy in the middle with a table of effects
pedals, a mixer and a Korg Monotron Delay, as his main weapon of attack. He
really tortured that thing. I have one and love it but I have never been
tempted to make the evil sounds that he produced from it..Very intense band. Phew.. More heavy stoner doom stuff..

At last, Toner Low
hit the stage with some cool marijuana projections on the back of the stage and
Jack the drummer, set with his sunglasses and Jack, the guitarist with his ear
protection and they were ready. The sound was just massive and loud and great..
The sound man, who also mixed in their spaced out far out sounds, did a
tremendous job as it was amazing.. The band played more or less the same set as
last time I saw them but this was just so massive it blew everyone away. The
band is quite limited in what they are doing, with the guitar riffs nearly the
same with some slight variations, on most of the tracks, especially the newer
stuff but it is effective and just takes you there.. This has to be one of the
most powerful stoner doom bands. They even played an encore, which is pretty unusual.
Pity there was only about 30 people watching the band.I had a really fun night.. Such nice people
to hang out and talk with as well.

Saturday, October 17, 2015

Spiha is a
great high energy Finnish rock and roll band. I was lucky enough to see these
guys and hang out with them a bit back when they were really becoming a popular
band in Finland in the early 2000s. The band made some EPS and two full length
albums before they disbanded. Around 2 years ago the band was reactivated and
has been playing mostly in Finland but a few gigs outside as well. The band has
started to work on new material but this compilation is something to hold the
fans over until then. This compilation has nearly all the songs from the bands
two full length records. Includes one song from the first EP and an unreleased
song called Forrest. If you have never heard of this band, this is a great
start. I have no idea how you get a copy though…. I can’t wait to see them live
again.. Below you can hear a brand new song but the band... Enjoy..

This was an
LP release party for a few bands but first up was Yesterdays’s Breed, which is
the brainchild of Claus Rosenblad and Sigurd Djurhuus.. I accidently went to
the Sort Diamant (Black Diamond) main library and had to message Morten and see
where everyone was but it was a different library.. Took about 15mins to get
there but they had not started to play and I met up with Morten Aron and his
wife, Tom and the guys in the band, whom I have known for some years… Anyway
about 20, they played a short set of songs from their record with Søren
Pilgaard on 60s keys, Claus on drums and vocals, Sigurd on Bass and Morten Aron
on guitar. Siguard and Morten switched on the last track. It was fun to hear
these 60s inspired pop rock tracks from the album. Nothing terribly original
but well played with a lot of passion in the vocals and drums (also Søren who
was singing along!).. They played maybe 20mins.. Then Sigurd, Søren (now
switched to drums) and a young hippie kid on guitar and vocals hit the stage
and played an old song from 1967.. Donavan or someone like that.. It was very rough but they were into
it…. Tom and I said Tilykke and our
goodbyes and headed off to Ungdomshuset for a much heavier set of music. I wlll
review the Yesterday’s Breed LP soon.. Check it out below.. Cool people.

When Tom
and I arrived about 20:50 Sgt Sunshine were having a long sound check and also
some technical difficulties but they got it all sorted out and it sounded
great, except the vocal was way too dry… IT was great to see and talk with
Eduardo again after all these years..
There were about 40 people for the first band, Death Hound. They were a three piece that played a mix of traditional
doom rock riffs, with a bit more stoney sound at times. The guitar player was a
master riffer, with some killer guitar riffs and he sung with a sort of evil,
bongzilla like voice but not so raspy. Special vocal. They played 6 songs in
about 30mins and Tom and I thought it was really good for a first gig. Heavy
drumming (he would also drum in Death Hound) and bass playing.

Set List: King on Wings, Embrace the Hate, Lost in Carcosa, Blood Moon, Witch King, Death Hound

Edwardo (Sgt Sunshine)

Next up was Sgt
Sunshine. It had been about 10 years since they last played in Copenhagen.
Eduardo (guitarist, singer,songwriter) had recruited two new young guys and I
thought they were great. It is pretty intense and difficult bass parts to play
the old stuff that Par wrote and he did a good job. I was surprised that the
set was only stuff old stuff. No new songs and nothing from the Black Hole CD
either.. They play two songs form the III LP though. I guess, he figures this is what people want to hear and their classic
1st album was just rereleased a 2nd time on Heavy Psych
Sound records, following the release on Elektrohasch.Anyway, this being the first gig of the tour
(they have 10 gigs), they sounded really good. The classic stoner-kyuss grooves
were tight and good but I felt like Eduardo was really holding back on the
guitar and not really soloing that much.. He is a fantastic guitar player and
very creative.I enjoyed the set a lot.. Check out the rerelease of their first record at the link below.

Dreich, were
another new 4 piece Copenhagen band, playing also their first gig.. This was
super loud and intense sludge… with very intense vocals, I have to say the guys
was really powerful and amazing going from the deep death vocals to the higher
pitched almost screams.. What a voice.. The music, reminded me a lot of the US
band Cough.. but it was not Cough.. There is only one Cough.. They only played
about 20mins.. Impressive…

NIGHTSLUG was next from Germany and I was very tired after
having a quite hard day so I only stayed to hear one or two songs of these
guys. I wish the sound guy had put this kind of delay on Eduardo’s voice but he
seemed not to know how or was not willing to. Anyway, this was an intense 3
piece also, with screaming vocals with intense delay and a huge wall of sludgy
doomy sound. There was still a great crowd at 12:30..

Set List: The Thrill, Dismal Fucker, No Relief, Under a Bane, Disease, Vile Pigs, All is Hell, Die in Fire

I sadly missed another Måneskjold side project band called
Gaia. They play slower spacey doomy stuff. The band was pretty stoned and drunk
by the time I left so I guess the show as pretty spaced out.. Pity I could not
stay to see it..

IT was a fun night and I had a really nice time talking with
this guy Ford from Texas and his wife who have moved to CPH a year ago…Hope to see them again soon.. Great night..
glad I had earplugs as it was super loud!

About Me

I am a research scientist doing Diabetes research and I do music journalism on the side and have been writing about music for 28 years now. I also lead an all improvised psychedelic space rock band called the Øresund Space Collective. I also am an avid collector of music.